Since 1744, Sotheby’s, the first international auction house, has been providing collectors with world-class works of art. To this day, Sotheby’s presents auctions in ten different salesrooms across the globe, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris.

Paris-based fashion collector, Didier Ludot, will be conducting his second sale at the auction house with an impressive array of 140 black dresses from his private collection. The assortment will feature pieces from couturiers and designers such as Mariano Fortuny, Yves Saint Laurent, Jeanne Lanvin, Paco Rabanne and Helmut Lang. As the author of “La Petite Robe Noire,” published in 2001, Loudot came to the conclusion that few items evoke style and highlight a couturier’s talent as much as the timeless black dress.

Didier Ludot did an impeccable job of articulating the power of the little black dress and its role in the lives of women: “[The little black dress] will always be perfect, whether they’re 17 or 70. It has always fascinated me as it touches all social classes, all generations. It suffers no mediocrity because everything becomes visible on a black dress.”

Amid the collection of dresses in the auction is a fall 1956 cocktail dress by Hubert de Givenchy, a 1925 Jean Patou “Nuit de Chine” dress, a spring 2005 Junya Watanabe dress, a Chanel dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld in 1985, as well as a dozen Christian Dior shoes designed by Roger Vivier. Among the vast assortment of black dresses, a few colored pieces are also featured.

Prior to the sale, from September 29 to October 2, the collection of dresses in addition to Christian Dior costume jewelry will be on public display at the auction house’s Faubourg Saint Honoré location.